Margaret Rome recently wrote Aging In Place Is The Option and it hit home with me because I just met a woman who personifies Margaret's message.
I did a Home Staging Consult last week for an 88 year old woman, Mary, who lives alone and really has no interest in moving. It was the agent who contacted me, and her children are the ones who want to sell the house.
Mary has lived there her whole life. Although it's a very large home, she only uses a very small portion of it... kitchen, bath and family room.
There's a twin bed and dresser in one corner of the family room. The rest of the home looks like it's frozen in time in 1980.
The home is a staging nightmare. Mary is a smoker and, based on her cough and the brown tinted ceilings and walls, she has been smoking forever.
The scope of work required to prepare this home for sale is far beyond Mary's reality. I gave my suggestions but it was obvious from her reaction that they won't be followed.
I told her not to worry about her sleeping arrangement in the family room...buyers would just have to understand. (most won't even make it that far, because the smoke odor will scare them away at the door)
Mary is mentally very sharp. She still drives and does her own shopping. She is very happy in the house, surrounded by her many keepsakes and photos from her fascinating life. It just feels wrong to disrupt her life at this time....a time when the memories are more valuable than ever.
I see no reason for this woman to be stressing out about preparing her home for sale. In my opinion, she should be able to remain living as she is....quite comfortably....for as long as she is financially, physically and mentally able to do so.
Her "kids" should not be pushing her to sell. They should deal with the house when she is no longer living in it.
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